Title Professionals Need More Time, PropLogix Survey Finds

July 18, 2019

A top challenge for title professionals is facing too many responsibilities with not enough time to perform those tasks, according to the latest State of the Title Industry report from PropLogix.

The report draws from the responses of more than 400 title professionals and is focused around the closing experience within title agencies and real estate law firms.

Not only did the survey find that 46 percent of title professionals say their peers could be better at due diligence, nearly three fourths think lack of time is impacting how well due diligence is being performed. The report also looks at what points these professionals outsource work to vendors who help them complete various aspects of pre and post-closing duties.

“What is surprising is the percentage of owners and CEOs (79% compared to 57% of closers and processors) who believe lack of time and resources played a role,” the survey stated. “While those in a leadership role didn’t rank lack of time as high of a challenge in their day-to-day, they still seem to recognize how it impacts their employees’ performance and accuracy.”

More than 90 percent of respondents said they’ve had to deal with issues arising from neglect of a previous closer or title professional. With so many settlements agents cleaning up after another, the lower marks for peers makes sense, according to PropLogix.

“Clearly, when title professionals are strapped for time already, having to fix something that could have been avoided is a major point of frustration,” the survey said. “Perhaps the lack of time is exactly why title issues aren’t always discovered or properly handled when they should be. This feeds into a common cycle of rushing to close a file, cleaning up a closed file, back to rushing to close a file.”

Closers and processors in the survey indicated they handle between 16 and 20 closings a month. The survey also showed that just because a title professional oversees a company, doesn’t mean they’re not responsible for closings now and again.

Most respondents who identified as an owner, CEO or VP (55%) said they’re personally handling up to five closings a month, 17% said they’re handling up to 10 closings a month and the rest of those respondents say they’re handling more than that.

“It goes to show that many title professionals in leadership roles are balancing varied responsibilities between day-to-day closing tasks and the overall success of their companies,” the report said.

The survey also asked questions about:

  • Title production
  • Outsourcing
  • Lien release tracking
  • Improper recording issues
  • Being more consumer focused
  • Attitude toward automation


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